Archived Insolence: The Archive site for Respectful Insolence

Who (or what) is Orac?

About Me

Location: The Liberator, somewhere deep in Federation space, United States

Orac is but a humble pseudonymous surgeon/scientist with an ego just big enough to delude himself that someone, somewhere might actually give a rodent's posterior about his miscellaneous verbal meanderings, but just barely small enough to admit to himself that few will. That Orac has chosen his pseudonym based on a rather cranky and arrogant computer shaped like a clear box of blinking lights from an old British SF show whose special effects were renowned for their early 1980's BBC/Doctor Who-style low budget look, but whose stories nonetheless resulted in some of the best, most innovative science fiction for television ever produced, should tell you nearly all that you need to know about Orac. (That, and the length of the preceding sentence.) Orac tries to keep his insolence respectful, but admittedly sometimes fails in the cases of obvious quackery and pseudoscience, attacks on him, very poor critical thinking skills, bigotry, and just general plain stupidity.

What is Respectful Insolence?

Respectful Insolence is a repository for the ramblings of the aforementioned pseudonymous surgeon/scientist concerning medicine and quackery, science and pseudoscience, history and pseudohistory, politics, and anything else that interests him (or pushes his buttons). Orac's motto: "A statement of fact cannot be insolent." (OK, maybe it can be just a little bit insolent.)

Blog carnivals

Insolent feeds

Notice to readers:

Respectful Insolence looks best on Firefox or Safari. Orac is therefore obligated to warn his readers that strange things sometimes happen to the right sidebar when RI is viewed on the inferior browser known as Internet Explorer. Even Orac, with his ability to communicate with any computer in the galaxy, has not yet been able to determine why this happens and therefore curses Microsoft.

Insolent Disclaimer

This is a personal web log, reflecting the sometimes prickly opinions of its author. Statements on this blog do not represent the opinions of anyone other than the author. They most definitely do not represent the opinions or position of the author's hospital, university, surgical practice, or partners. The information on this blog is intended for discussion and entertainment purposes only and not as recommendations on how to diagnose or treat illnesses. Any personal medical issues the reader may have should be referred to the reader's physician. If the reader freely chooses to follow the opinion of a pseudonymous blogger like the author (who has also not done a proper history or physical examination and whose credentials cannot be verified) over that of his or her own personal physician, it is the reader's decision alone, for which the reader must bear full responsibility.

E-mail policy: All e-mail replies to Orac in response to material posted to this blog are subject to being publicly reprinted on Respectful Insolence solely at the discretion of Orac. Requests not to publicly reprint an e-mail will certainly be considered on a case-by-case basis, but Orac offers no guarantee that he will honor them (especially if the e-mail in question is obnoxious, threatening, or insulting).

A school of thought, lacking credulity,In Skeptics' Circle, where we lay our scene,From doubting mind springs forth some sanity,Where decent thought doth wash the B.S. clean.'Tis here we place the quacks in fatal throes,For lies do seem to take on their own life;And greatly do increase the public's woes,Thus do the skeptics ever dwell in strife.'Tis this, the thing which doubters most do love:To purge the crap and bring the truth to light.They do not ask for answers from above,But use critical thinking as they might.If your most patient eyes do wish to read,The Circle hath such answers as you need.

Go thou forth and be inoculated against the credulous claims that flood the blogosphere!

Next up is Mile Zero on November 23. Please note that this upcoming edition of the Skeptics' Circle will be posted one day early (on Wednesday instead of Thursday), because of the Thanksgiving Day holiday in the U.S. I figured that most American fans of the Circle would have better things to do that day, such as watching football and feasting. (Although, really, what could be better than enjoying some skeptical takedowns of pseudoscience, paranormal, and other topics worthy of a good debunking?) I hope this won't bother our non-American readers, but, like most bloggers, I'm a traffic whore, and traffic is likely to be way down on a major holiday. I'm sure participants will understand.

Speaking of participants, you can be one. Send examples of your best skeptical blogging to Tom at Mile Zero by November 22. Guidelines are here and here. And, as always, if you think you have what it takes to host, if you think you can stand up to the Hovind Creationism Stupo-Rays the way Matt did (on second thought, maybe that's asking too much of anybody) and put together a great blog carnival, drop me a line at oracknows@gmail.com.